leslie10646

Right, now let's turn to David's wonderful Arigna Town - photographs do it no justice - you have to see it and have the Station Master point out some of the delights. David has a series of informative notices along the front explaining the background to the layout and how things were done - excellent. First a view of the station area - The railbus arrives at Arigna. What a clever design this "bus" was - note the entrance with steps from rail level to the doors - no need for platforms (or stations!). This method of boarding the train is repeated on the other side. Note, too the shunting signal. David pointed out the group on the platform. Folk en route to weeping exile in America, perhaps;? The local priest is seeing off a couple of his young ladies! Well, I'll put it that way, David had a more amusing tale which I couldn't repeat here! The railbus was then turned on the turntable. Now you can see how the boarding arrangements were repeated on the other side. Finally, David's piece de la resistance - the washing line with clothes blowing in the wind! Yes, the sheets really DID blow - everyone asked him how it was done! No clever DCC feature - the sheets are tissue and there was a draught in the NEC - I can vouch for that - the IRRS stand was in primes position to get the full benefit.

Patrick - your every wish ........ Here is the Great Man himself supervising the arrival of a beet special at Courtmacsherry. No need to tell you whose wagons they are? Andy did a lovely job of converting my Provincial Wagons Bulleid Corrugated opens to 21mm, as you can see Never being one to make demands, but I insisted on getting steam haulage - so with Andy's MGWR tank. St Molaga takes her turn on the beet and finally, last but not least ..... Argadeen takes a bow. This little engine was a great favourite of my late friend Lance King, who donated her nameplate to the RPSI's museum -the one from the other side is in the IRRS's HQ. Needless to say, the brake van was the inspiration for my latest wagon - the 10 ton GSWR brake. I clean forgot to show Andy my version - he's cursing my existence, as now people think his fine scratch-built van is my kit! Finally, a view of the harbour at Courtmacsherry - Another terrific layout from Andy. He says it's "incomplete", but this looks just great to me! Note the close supervision of the photographer by Andy - maybe he thought I had my eye on those lovely wagons - a mix of scratch built, John Mayne's kits etc. We spent time on Saturday night so that we could load up a display of Lance King's slides of Courtmacsherry and the CB&SCR and were able to display them on our monitor on the IRRS stand on Sunday - the wonders of modern technology! Arigna pics in the morning - I'm knackered after a weekend on my feet!

Impressive modular construction - they were putting it up at 7pm when I called by to say "Hi" to the lads. It obviously goes together very well! Good luck with the launch tomorrow - I must try and get along to swell the crowd! I promise you Stand C65 is VERY simple - our Chairman won't let us have a flashy presence.

Folks I'll have no less that three new books for sale on the IRRS Stand at Warley at the weekend - profits to support Irish railway preservation. Irish Railway Memories - a Decade of Change 1984 - 1994: an album of photographs by Paul Haywood - until I looked through this, I hadn't really realised just how dirty diesels could get - ammo for the weathering men? £10.95 Railways in Ireland Part One: is a new edition of Martin Barstow's first of five volumes on Irish railways. This one covers the GNR, SLNCR, and the five narrow gauge lines in their hinterland. Many new photographs have been added - I haven't done a page by page comparison, but can assure you that it's beautifully reproduced with fine sharp b;ack and white illustrations. For an Englishman writing about Irish Railways, Martin does a commendable job and found interesting photographs by fellow countrymen who put their camera to good use in the Emerald Isle. £17.95 Finally, for the people with a narrower view of life: Narrow Gauge Album1950-1965 In Colour by Michael Whitehouse, son of a famous father PB ("Pat") Whitehouse of Railway Roundabout fame. "From the wilds of the west of Ireland, through the mountains of North Wales to the rolling countryside of the east of England ironstone fields, the narrow gauge railway provided an invaluable service for around a hundred years." I have yet to see the book, which just arrived in Lightmoor Press's warehouse yesterday, but I'll be picking up a supply on Saturday. Black Dwarf Lightmoor are the top railway publisher these days, in my not humble opinion - their books cover their topics thoroughly and the reproduction of images would take some beating. No one line captions for them - the norm is a meaty description of the scene, doing credit to the scene depicted. £25.00, but mention my nickname on this site and i'll give you a couple of quid off. Come to Stand C65 at Warley and have a look! Leslie(10646)

The wait is nearly over! My Informed Sources tell me that the driving wheels are due early next week, so the first locos should be completed pretty soon after that! Just in time to run Christmas extras!

Aw, Andy, ye're no fun at all - I thought you were going to do the whole of Strabane and was looking forward to selling you a load of GN wagon kits!

Ah, David, I always ask to be at least close to any Irish layout. This time Chris, the Societies man for the Warley MRC, has really come up trumps. One year we were actually in line with two MRSI layouts - one of which, very deservedly, won a Cup! There was never a moment when there wasn't a crowd in front of it. It was a brilliant crowd-pleaser for an exhibition.

As I'm just packing up stuff for Warley, I'm checking through the papers which the Club sends us. I was looking to see just where they'd put us and, Bless 'Em they've put us back to back with Andy and David - so we have a nice little Irish corner. So, after you've ogled the layouts remember to pop round the corner and say "hi" to us at the IRRS Stand C65. I hope to see lots of you at the weekend. Leslie (and Richard) PS Wow, I've just noticed that The Lads have a whole Island to themselves at B31a!

Now, "back to business". I won't be overtly selling Provincial Wagons at Warley, but I'll happily DELIVER pre-orders there. Please let me know what you want, either by the e-mail address on my website, or by PM here. Obviously, having had to miss Raheny, I've plenty of stocks of most wagons, especially my new GSWR 10 ton brake van - intended Raheny prices will apply. You'll find Richard McLachlan and I on Stand C65 - the Irish Railway Record Society, London Area, so drop by and say "Hi". We'll be displaying (and selling) digitised drawings from the Society archive - locomotives, coaches, wagons, buildings, signalling diagrams - you name it! Come and see the superb drawings of the Dundalk Newry and Greenore line - a work of beauty. I'll be selling a selection of recently published Irish railway books and some out of print works. We look forward to seeing you - never a better year to come with two superb Irish layouts, the IRM guys and us! Leslie

First, Andy, my condolences on the loss of your Mum. I'm not surprised to see the effusive praise on another thread for Castlederg - an advantage with being in "Weeping Exile" is that you can see Andy and David's layouts without having to go too far, for exhibition managers here in England know a good thing when they see it. Castlederg is seriously wonderful modelling - as Andy knows - one of my first homes - I went to school there at the age of four - my Dad was a Sergeant in the RUC there - unhappily fifteen years after the tramway closed. My first train set was delivered to our home in Castlederg by a fat man with a beard at Christmas 1950.

Good luck with your interesting project - The Locomotive that Never Was - it could be a film? Henry Forbes, in true style, made quite a success of the little tractor after ten months of surgery at Dundalk. I always assumed that it was simply the Strabane shunter, but when scanning Lance King's photos, I realised that successive photos of Phoenix were at Strabane and Stranorlar! I was tempted to get a model made of another loco which never made it off the drawing board - Ron Pocklington's single ended Turf Burner! I could replace my G Class with one?

NO trade - believe me, I've tried every time it has run. Apparently the Museum does not want any there, so the only stand you're likely to see is the fellow who sells books at IRRSA meetings in Dublin - he has "Grandfather" rights! Now, he does turn up the odd bit of interesting railway paperwork, but otherwise, Andy, you'll have a cheap weekend! Enjoy it nonetheless! As others have said - an amazing place to have a model exhibition.

Hi Joe Well, if we're into blowing trumpets, Provincial Wagons do the CIE 1970 four wheel flat - designed for 20ft containers as a kit for £20. If you need several, I'll knock a bit off as I save postage. See http://www.provincialwagons.com/--7/ I've just noticed that I don't mention the Flat price - must update the website!

Noel See a reply of mine on another thread. In the 1960s CIE had a Pilot Engine at many main stations to deal with sundry shunting and rescuing trains whose unreliable A Class had failed. So you chose your shortest, least useful, siding and bung one of them there as your station pilot?

Tony From watching your videos, the layout looks as if it could be circuit, but you seem to be saying it's end to end? If, like me, you like to watch trains going by and what's nicer than a blue GN loco passing by - then can you adjust the layout to be an oval? As for the bit about putting scenery up, don't give up. I'll start a thread on Portadown Junction - 21x 17 oval (of sorts) and you can see that after FIVE YEARS not only is there not a blade of grass of scenery, but I can watch No.207 plod round with The Enterprise (it needs the weight treatment mentioned above by David White); or my little U Class with four bogies, which it's pretty happy with four bogies (without any treatment). My UG romps away with ten bogies! I've avoided showing anyone what's in the loft as it would destroy any reputation I have, but I'll do it in the hope that it will encourage you to carry on. You're miles ahead of me - I'm laying Portadown Goods Yard, during my enforced absence from Raheny! KEEP IT UP! Leslie

along with random failures built into the chip to force rescue by modeller operators.. Spot on Robert! I'm afraid that until they put a good american diesel engine in them, these locos were not too good. As a result, most significant stations had "Pilot Locomotives" (there were pages in the WTT of the hours when they were on duty and where). What today is referred to as a Thunderbird Loco. So, I've found a use for the older As in my collection - "standing pilot". Thanks, Robert!

Somebody has to ask the question: will there be space to fit a smoke unit to the original Crossley engined versions.............. Nothing daft about that question, Glover, the real things were notorious smoke producers. But it would need to be a very high quality unit which blasted out more, depending on the torque the loco was producing at the time - Maybe not......... Add a hundred Euros to the price!

Glover, young boy - give up the fags - then you can afford every livery you can imagine! I only ever puffed cigars and now I can't walk up hills because of my COPD. You want to have decades more to run trains through your famous station (remember my house is named "Pettigo Fair" - the Fair was on the day (established from the GNR Weekly Notices in the IRRS Archive) on which The Boss was born, hence the name. The loco is sure to be a winner - almost as many variants as the J15s!

Great choice, lads. All the very best with the production! Lord, I'll be 73 when you get it to me. Will A1 be the only one you'll do in silver, or do I have to wait until I'm 74 (if God grants...). (Now what do I do with the two I've got already - I know, a diesel scrap line behind my steam shed .....) Only kidding, a really great choice and you'll get my order soon - even if the Blessed Oliver never wanted to "Buy British". Have a great show - I bet it has caused lots of excitement and rightly too. If I'd been there, I'd be along with €50 right now. Leslie

Nothing I had experienced in the West Cork could have prepared me for Blaenau on a wet day. I loved John's comment about North Wales - but of course, there was a positive side to it - the waterfall at Tanygrisiau would be in full flood and that was a sight to see! When I saw Andy Cundick's Valentia, I commented on how wonderfully grey it was (boy, I've led a few tours round the Ring of Kerry on rather dull days) - I did suggest to him that he have a glass front to the layout with rain somehow imitated on (in) it. If the German's can make the glass opaque behind the driver in an ICE3 - by just flicking a switch - I'm sure imitation rain would be a cinch? Mike - Bantry is an absolute delight - looking forward to seeing your GSWR brake van in the station!

Eoin, I hope that you don't mind me bringing this excellent thread to the attention of Richard McLachlan, who has built well over a hundred coaches in brass. He has a weakness, of course - they're mainly North Eastern Railway! To say he was impressed - well, read his own words - "Eoin's post is very detailed. He is doing a really good job. "I like his clamping/bending thing so have ordered one because the price is very reasonable, especially the loose clamps. I have made lots of smaller clamping things and if this one is any good, I will buy more of the loose clamps in future rather than make my own because they are a fiver for 2. Lots of jobs get easier with a custom clamping jig. "The roof is seriously heavy engineering - he cuts it out with a portal milling machine along with a load of extra parts. He had to design the artwork, then get the machine to cut it out. Big investment and serious skill or a lot of practice. Rolling the roof seemed to be hard work for him. I think he is using fairly hard brass (as used by WW for the sides of flush coaches). Over the years I have bought a ton of lovely soft and very flat brass in Germany (also a lot cheaper than anywhere I can find in the UK) which requires very little effort to roll or curve. Interesting. "Delighted that he is using simple rigid bogies. Even in P4 they work better than any of the so-called better designs. I will look into his supplier of corridor connections - I have various etched brass ones and they are generally a pain because they are too flimsy - bits come off or bend within hours of building the thing. He clearly knows what he is doing - one of the few. I might not choose to do everything exactly as he has done because I have different methods that work better for me and the tools I have available, but it's all better than most of what gets printed in MRJ. A good chap - or should that be 'a grand fella'." "Better than most of what gets printed in Model Railway Journal" - can't be bad, eh? I'm sure he'd share info on where he gets his "lovely soft and very flat brass" from. Not exactly technical language for someone with a Masater's Degree in Engineering?

Eoin, a terrific thread which will hopefully encourage some younger modellers to "have a go" at the harder stuff. More power to your elbow with it.

Glad to hear that, Dave. I always thought John a sensible guy - better out enjoying a good walk in the Lakes or up a mountain, than being cooped up making locos etc. On the other hand, he's promised some interesting things for we "Oldies".

For those of you who had planned to buy one of my new GSWR brake vans at Raheny - I'll send it to you by post for the Raheny price of €35. Just send me a PM, or use the e-mail address on my website. Naturally, I have good stocks of all my wagons ready for the Show, so let me know of anything else you need and I'll send a quote - I can usually post two kits for the same price as one, so you'll save a bit. Enjoy the show! Leslie